Tuesday, October 25, 2011

PUSKAS , THE SOCCER LEGEND - CAPT AJIT VADAKAYIL

TRIBUTE TO A SOCCER LEGEND, FERENC PUSKAS-- The Nikola Tesla of soccer

Puskas who?

Before Maradona and Pele --there was Puskas-- THE ORIGINAL No 10

Well, the new generation needs introduction to this mighty giant of soccer. He is the greatest legend of them all, even greater than Maradona or Pele.

He was under rated by the west, as it was in fashion to do communist bashing-- for Ferenc Puskas was a Hungarian from a communist country.

Let me build up some perspective now--

Watch the video down below-- it is a Nike Advertisement which shows Brazilian Ronaldinho playing with a new pair of Nike shoes. He hits the cross bar 4 times. It is an advertisement, which is edited of course.

The modern giants like Christiano Ronaldo or Messi cannot do this-- wearing shoes, NOT allowing the ball to touch the ground and hitting the crossbar MORE THAN FOUR TIMES IN A ROW.

Maradona with his magical ball contol could have done it at his prime , definitely NOT Pele.

Above video is Brazilian Ronaldo's answer to Ronaldinho's cross bar strike. Here he nets the ball after htiing the post on vertical and horizontal bars-- the kick must be spot on to an inch !
Puskas passed away 5 years ago, un-noticed unsung.

The people who knew what he was worth gave tributes, acknowledging the passing away of a legend.

George Best had this to sayQUOTE: I was with (Bobby) Charlton, (Denis) Law and Puskás, we were coaching in a football academy in Australia. The youngsters we were coaching did not respect him including making fun of his weight and age...We decided to let the guys challenge a coach to hit the crossbar 10 times in a row, obviously they picked the old fat one. Law asked the kids how many they thought the old fat coach would get out of ten. Most said less than five. George Best said ten. The old fat coach stepped up and hit nine in a row. For the tenth shot he scooped the ball in the air, bounced it off both shoulders and his head, then flicked it over with his heel and cannoned the ball off the crossbar on the volley. They all stood in awed silence then one kid asked who he was, I replied, "To you, his name is Mr. Puskás".-- UNQUOTE

All above witnesses to this amazing feat, were super heavy weights in soccer.

George Best-- Voted in 2011 as Manchester United's best footballer ever.

Denis Law- Scored 46 goals for Manchester United in one single season forMU and 237 goals in 401 appearances..

Even when Puskas was playing active soccer , terrorising defenders and goalkeepers world wide, he was the butt of all jokes, for being overweight and having a gargantuan beer belly.

In 1953 the Hungarian soccer team arrived at Wembley stadium on 25th Nov 1953, to play the "match of the century". Mighty England was unbeaten for 52 years at home. The Hungarian team was known as the " Magical Magyars " -- the soccer dominating power of those days, with Puskas being the Chief magician.

One of the English players getting over confident cried " Look at that little fat chap. We will murder them!". Very few judgements made on this planet could have been more wide off target.

A year later at Budapest in a match touted as "payback time match" , England , the self styled masters of the magnificent game were again mercilessly humiliated and slaughtered 7-1. England was totally demolished as a world footballing power, and their soccer foundations were shaken..

Even today the English remember his classic drag back goal.

Nobody had ever seen such footballing skills exhibited by one fat , squat man who had no right foot. no header and NIL fitness. He made up by sheer left foot canon shot power, amazing ball control and supreme footballing intelligence.on the field.

Nobody could steal the ball from this tiny powerhouse.

He was the purest striker the world would ever see.

Puskas could anticipate, he was a magician. Today I wonder, if Puskas had 1/4th fitness of Cristiano Ronaldo, what he would have been.

His left foot was a thunderbolt, and he terrorised goalkeepers from 35 metres away. Those days the leather ball was very heavy and would not play ball to "bend it like Beckham " modern day shots.

Starting from the tender age of 18, he scored 84 goals in 85 international matches, till he retired at the age of 39 in 1966. His career tally stands at 1176 goals . Pele does NOT even come close, as second best.

Puskas had scored 157 goals in 182 games for Real Madrid. They have NOT forgotten this giant among giants on the soccer field, who gave them 5 La Liga championships in a row. After his death in 2006, at the age of 79, they gave him a pre-game RIP tribute.

See video below.

Puskas and his Real Madrid partner Argentinian Alfredo De Stefano as partner, was the most feared finishing duo in international soccer.

Puskas was the core of the Hungarian team which went unbeaten for a world record 32 games, during which they became Olympic Champions in 1952.

No wonder for the 1954 World Cup , Hungary flew in as top contenders. Puskas played the first two matches. In the first game Hungary clinically demolished South Korea 9-0 .

Conspiracies were soon hatched by the West. How dare a communist team , take the limelight in this manner.

In the second game against West Germany , Puskas was marked by Greman butcher Werner Liebrich who felled him repeatedly and mercilessly, with the western referee looking the other way.

Puskas got a hairline fracture on his ankle and retired , still Hungary won easily 8-3. Puskas with 3 goals in his kitty, was ruled out of the World cup and he risked his footballing career if he played with a painful hairline fracture.

In the next game the Brazilians being poor losers invaded the Hungarian dressing room after the match and attacked them. In the free for all Brazilian coach Zeze Moreira punched and slapped the Hungarian sports minister.

In the semi-finals ,without Puskas, Hungary struggled against Uruguay, had to play an epic 120 minutes and were exhausted --they won 4-2.

The 1954 World Cup finals was at Wankdorf stadium Berne against West Germany, whom they had slaughtered 8-3 before.

The playground was deliberately made slushy by excessive watering, which suited the Germans playing with special Adidas shoes, while Hungarians had communist soccer boots without cleats.

60000 people crammed into the stadium , to watch the "magical Magyars" who had NOT lost in 4 years.

It is now understood, after extensive study of footage by University of Leipzig that the Germans were injected with steroid drugs Methamphitamine , before the match and also orally during the half break, making them indefatigable. The German players were told it was Vitamin C injection, and those days there were no drug tests..

Puskas declared himself fit, a huge sacrifice though he was limping. Within 6 minutes of the start of the game, Puskas scored. Two minutes later Hungarian forward Czibor scored again.

After that what happened is still a mystery to the whole world.

Today people say that some Hungarian players were bribed. In the rain, hard and rough playing Germany clawed back and scored thrice.

Just before the end of the game Puskas scored a beauty, past goalkeeper Terek , but this goal was disallowed by the British referee William Ling, supported by the Welsh linesman Mervyn Griffiths.

Everybody were stunned as the goal was clearly legitimate.

It was obvious that even God could not make COMMUNIST Hungary win that day, -- it was all fixed.

THE 1954 WORLD CUP ISTODAY KNOWN IN SPORTS QUIZ PROGRAMMES AS THE "CUP WHICH HUNGARY LOST"

In a career spanning 23 years Puskas won 3 European cups, 10 national championships, and 8 top individual top scorer awards.

He is remembered for his grace, great heart and jovial nature, unlike the cold and snooty players, like Cristiano Ronaldo nowadays.

Probably being from a communist country, and that too a Major in the army cost him a place in the glorious annals of football. In Oct 2009, FIFA made late amends by introducing FIFA Puskas award for the "most beautiful goal".

For me it will be Maradona , and Puskas neck to neck-- with Maradona winning by a small margin, or the 2nd brightest star of the footballing skies. Pele is far behind, almost lack lustre.

The Hungarian dream team with amazing team dynamics , of 1953/ 54 can never ever be surpassed.

11 comments:

Have'nt been fortunate enough to see enough footage of Puskas in action. However, there is no doubt about the fact that he had the best left foot for any player to have been a part of competitive football. Even to this day not much has changed with the way the European press, FIFA and Uefa remains selective in projecting certain players, belonging to certain clubs and nations to be the best.......which brings me to the case of my own boyhood idol who despite being the most technically gifted footballer (IMO) (certainly of the modern era and in all likeliness of all time) remains highly under rated. He might not be as successful in terms of titles won, in comparison to a lot of other players but has a strong case in his favor to be regarded a complete footballer and the best in terms of technique...... and im talking about the perfect 10 himself Dennis Bergkamp.

I was just searching some of your other blogs when I saw this blog by chance. I suddenly remembered my school days. During my school days my father would always talk to me a lot about sports. Infact, he would encourage me to take part in sports in school and college. He told me that when he was in England, he had seen a real magician-Puskas in action in the same match that you have mentioned in this blog. I wonder why even today the world sports media never talks about great players like Puskas and only hype is created about some players.

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THIS MATCH WILL GO DOWN IN HISTORY AS A MUST WATCH

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